I was asked this on another forum today.

For a good few years, I have grown lavender in my south facing front
patch, purely to feed to bees.
Every year round about now, we trim it back into shape after flowering,
and there are so many dead bees on the ground.
I hope it's nothing we are doing ?

Any ideas?
Taffy

"david" wrote in message
...
I was asked this on another forum today.

For a good few years, I have grown lavender in my south facing front patch, purely to
feed to bees.
Every year round about now, we trim it back into shape after flowering, and there are so
many dead bees on the ground.
I hope it's nothing we are doing ?

Any ideas?

Are they bumblebees or honey bees? If they are bumblebees
I can't really give an explanation, but if they are honey bees
then this is quite normal. In the summer, the average number
of bees in a colony is around 60,000 and the worker bee
lives for around 6 weeks. Therefore the normal death rate
will be around 10,000 per week. If bees from more than
one colony are visiting your lavender then the number of dead
bees will be multiplied. If only 1% of the bees die on your
lavender - then that is still quite a number of dead bees per
week.

Ardmhor